The Court of Appeal in Abuja has reserved judgment in an appeal brought by Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC), challenging the majority decision of a tribunal that annulled his election in favor of David Ombugadu, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
A three-member panel of justices led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam informed the parties involved that the judgment date will be communicated later.
During the day’s proceedings, Wole Olanipekun, the counsel to Governor Sule, who submitted five processes challenging the appeal, urged the court to dismiss the tribunal’s judgment and allow his client’s appeal.
Olanipekun argued that the tribunal had rejected the submissions of their witnesses during the tribunal hearing, and the data from the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) presented to the tribunal were merely introduced without being considered as evidence.
After presenting his processes, Kanu Agabi, the counsel to Ombugadu and the PDP, urged the court to reject the appeal against the tribunal judgment, stating that their evidence was purely documentary.
Regarding the BVAS issue, Agabi contended that it was adequately demonstrated in the tribunal, as required by law, with the printout from the machine presented as evidence, countering the claim that they were simply introduced without analysis.
Agabi referred the court to the tribunal’s judgment, arguing that in delivering the judgment, the lower court meticulously provided a breakdown of how it reached its decision.